Pilots land Indian Dreamliner manually after computer problems
NEW DELHI - Pilots of a Dreamliner which was forced to divert midflight to Kuala Lumpur had to land the plane manually after suffering computer problems, an Air India spokesman said Thursday.
The Air India plane was en route from Melbourne to New Delhi on Wednesday when it suffered what an official had said were "software glitches" and had to make an emergency landing -- the latest in a series of mishaps to hit the Boeing aircraft.
Air India spokesman Praveen Bhatnagar said on Thursday that "the commanders lost their confidence in the software system".
"The alternate method available to them was manual landing," Bhatnagar told AFP in New Delhi.
He said the problem was "not serious" and denied local media reports that all three of the plane's navigation computers, which allow the plane to fly long distances on auto pilot, had failed.
More than 200 passengers and crew were stranded overnight in the Malaysian capital after the plane landed safely.
Boeing engineers, who rushed in from Hong Kong, have now fixed the problem and the plane was expected to land in Delhi at 8pm (1430 GMT) on Thursday, the airline said. Some passengers who needed to fly to Delhi urgently have been put onto other flights.
AFP
